


All The Stars Aligned

by siruru



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Awkward Crush, Developing Relationship, F/M, Feelings Realization, Love Confessions, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Puppy Love, Reader-Insert, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 14:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14956088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siruru/pseuds/siruru
Summary: A person really isn’t what you make of them in your head. They are something much greater than that.





	All The Stars Aligned

**Author's Note:**

> I saw @eufeme‘s little prompt thing and i came up with this short thing. as always recently, mood music is brought to you by st. vincent with all my stars aligned. please also note that i am writing under the assumption that the main character goes through some major changes through the college years.
> 
> Please enjoy and feedback is always welcomed.

You first remember meeting, well more like seeing, Steve Rogers during freshman orientation. He was a skinny thing that wore clothes two sizes too big for him, and hung near the end of the group, which you were also doing but for different reasons. The guide was talking and showing you everything that you would be using for the next four years, though you weren’t paying much attention obviously more entranced by the clouds up above. It isn’t until the group starts going up a hill that you hear a deep heaving, though nobody seems to be paying attention. You stop and and head back to where he is, as he is taking in deep gulps of air, while holding onto his knees with his head in between them.

“Hey, maybe you should sit down,” you try to give some assistance, as blue eyes turn up to look at you, “Wouldn’t want anything to happen before school starts.” 

He nods, as you point him to a bench at the beginning of the gentle slope before it turns into the hill that nearly killed the poor boy’s lungs, though you don’t say anything besides that. You know from personal experience that some people didn’t like to be babied and you try your hardest to respect that as he took his inhaler out of his pocket.  You wait for him to calm down, as you fiddle with your phone for a bit.

“Thanks,” is all he manages to say, as you look through your bag and hand him a bottle of water, “Ya didn’t have to.”

“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right thing do,” you shrug as blue eyes widen for a moment, though you aren’t paying attention at the moment as you are midway through another raid in your mobile game. Steve takes a big gulp of water and can’t help the large grin on his face.

“Where are ya from?” he manages to ask after a while, as your eyes flicker to see he has completely turned to look at you, “I’m commuting from Brooklyn.” 

“Living on campus. Jersey girl, born and raised.”  

Steve lets out a nervous laugh, Bucky would surely have his head for this --  if he ever heard of it.

* * *

 

You swear that you don’t mean to be that person in the English Department, the one student that all the professors talk about due to their differing opinions on what is being taught. It’s just that you have a different viewpoint when it comes to certain literature, and it always had to be with Dr. Phillips.  During freshman year, it had been on the meaning behind the blue topaz in your creative writing final. Last semester, it had been over the concept of “loneliness” in Carson McCullers's book, now you couldn’t help but groan as he declares that Daisy is a fool for not loving Jay Gatsby.

“Do you disagree, Miss?” the old professor questions, as some of the students turn to look at you.  Even Steve, who is sitting in the back doodling, since he is taking this course as more of a general education requisite more than anything else and while he did all the work nothing really interested him -- until you started talking. 

“Well, yeah. I think they were more in love with the concept of the other than the actual person,” you start up, as some of your classmates can’t help but nod, “I mean, Gatsby didn’t know what Daisy wanted, but he wanted to live the type of life she had. He was in love with the lifestyle, and Daisy for all her fooling around never left that lifestyle when asked if she wanted to be with him --- she was never willing to leave for love. They were just using each other, no?” 

There is a low murmuring of agreement between the people you know are English majors, as a new round of discussion starts around your ideas for the rest of class. The redhead next you whispers something, which causes you to laugh and from Steve’s vantage point, he can’t help but start drawing your profile. 

And maybe, Steve is falling in love with the concept of you as well.   

However, thankfully, life isn’t an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel and Steve starts to see less and less of you as his prerequisites are completed and he completely focuses on his art degree. Steve never mourns you though, he doubts that you even remember him from the handful of occasions that you had interacted with each other, but he knows that you are there somewhere on campus drinking overpriced coffee and still fighting with the professors -- and he’s okay with that. He grows out of his small body (literally), moves closer to the university when Bucky transfers, and even tries dating an English medical student though it doesn’t work out. Life goes on until it hits you again. 

* * *

In the first semester of junior year, Steve is going through an Egyptian art phase thanks to his tutelage underneath Dr. Erskine, an eccentric doctor that in his latter age traveled and painted. Due to this, a nameless woman that always ordered at the same diner as him catches his attention, well more like her back --uncovered due to the unbearable New York heat-- wouldn’t leave him alone, as he often found himself sketching it out when he was bored. He wanted to know the history around it, maybe he wanted to know more about her as well. However, even now standing at 6’ feet, he still feels like skinny Steve from two years.

After a month of watching her, Bucky does him the sore favor of pushing him into the poor woman waiting for her order, as they sit on the front countertop. Her eyes are covered with large sunglasses, as she gives him an annoyed grimace, at least from what he can see.            

“H-Hey! **Is that the Eye of Horus on your back** ?” Steve tries to nervously lead the conversation after giving a brief apology, and she entertains him for the moment.

**“Yeah?** ” she manages to answer, unsure of where this is all going and Steve swears that Bucky is laughing behind him.

“ **Ah cool, but what do you need its protection from** ?” he keeps questioning, as she moves away slightly. One hand on the back of her neck in embarrassment and the other on her bag of greasy fast food. 

“ **Everything, especially my social anxiety** ,” she tries to laugh at her own expense, but it comes out strained, as Steve can now hear Bucky curse softly in the back. Both of them now feeling bad for bothering her. 

“ **Oh shit, I’m sorry,** ” is all he can manage to say, as she starts backing away.

“ **Hahaha, ‘kay, cool, no problemo** ,” she turns away, trying to save face, and heads out the exit as Steve heaves out a weary sigh, feeling sorry that he had scared her away.

“Sorry, Stevie,” Bucky manages to say after putting his burger away,  knowing that he might have ruined his best friend’s chances in one blow. 

“It’s okay, punk,” Steve says as he tries to best to smile.

* * *

 

However, some thing up above is kind to Steve Rogers as he starts to see the Eye of Horus girl everywhere: in the hallway, during school events, and now sitting in the coffee shop on a laptop sitting across Natasha Romanoff -- a redhead that double majored in Russian lit and art who Steve had interacted with a couple of times during those “Red Room” art classes that he would like to forget. However, aside from all that is really stuck in his head at the moment is going to apologize to her, though for a brief moment her laughing at something Natasha says makes him think of something else, of someone else and he hopes Sam’s psychoanalyzing has gotten to him again. Well, here he goes.

“Hey, Natasha,” he manages to say without a crack in his voice, as both women look at him, “I was wondering if you had the notes for Dr. Fury’s Cubism class.”

“Oh...yeah,” the redhead says with some suspicion in her voice, as Steve takes a sip of his over sweetened coffee, while she rummages through her bookbag. Eye of Horus girl looks up from her laptop once before going back to typing, “Here ya go, Steve. But, I don’t know--”

“ _ Steve Rogers _ ?” the woman suddenly squeaks out, which has both art students looking at the blushing mess she is turning into.  

“Yeah, why?” he manages to finally ask, as all of the familiarity from two years ago rushes forward. Those twinkling eyes are cautious and the once familiar uptick of a smile is set to a serious frown.  

“Oh shit,” she mutters quietly, as Natasha starts laughing before calming down and saying her name softly, as if trying to stop her from getting nervous all over again.

He knows that name, and his original concept of you is shattered.  

Steve learns quickly that the confident facade he had seen before hid a more cautious woman that tended to shy away from the limelight unless something really bothered you. You had gotten your tattoo back in sophomore year after a tough semester through one of Natasha’s friends, Clint, but it was her original design. You liked wearing charms for protection and played with the rings on your fingers whenever you can. Your smiles are rare, unless you’re with Natasha, but there’s the most beautiful things he’s seen — he swears it to Bucky over and over again the first time he makes you smile on his own.

_ “A green light?”  you ask looking at Steve’s finished picture for his next art show. You’re standing next to him as he smiles at the green mist that it the majority of the his painting, as you simply stare at it with your arms crossed over your chest and a frown, trying to figure what book its from -- since that was the theme of said gallery show.  _

_ “Just like Gatsby,” he laughs, as you finally put two and two together and groan.  _

_ “Are you trying to romanticize that awful novel?”  _

_ “More like warn them,” he shrugs as you start laughing. The sounds catches him off-guard, though he can’t help but grin at the smile blooming on your face.   _

Over time, Steve falls in love with the person that he has come to known that you really are, though he still doesn’t forget the teenager with the kind heart that helped him almost four years ago. Blue eyes look at you from outside of the coffee shop window on a wintery December day shortly after the last finals for junior year have been completed. You play with the ring on your right index finger before turning the page of the book you have been reading. He smiles, as he opens the door and gets ready to pour his heart out and show off the latest thing he has been working on.

_ A concept drawing on someone you love.  _

And while, he isn’t in love with the idea of just “you” anymore, Steve knows that that he’s madly in love you as a person and all that you are, and he wants to keeps seeing you grow and change as long as you’ll let him.   


End file.
